I call my nanny ‘Nanay,’ the Filipino word for Mom. She raised me when my own mother had to work. This is Nanay’s note to me. We used to recite it when I was very little. It says ‘I love you todo-todo, but my heart is poco-poco. It means ‘I love you so much, but my heart is small.’ / Hannah Reyes Morales

Millie and Ava rest. Their relationship now mirrors the relationship I had with Nanay. / Hannah Reyes Morales

This housekeeper of my relative's refused to sleep on the bed, because she wasn’t used to it. She likes the marble floors because they cool her down in the summer heat.

Millie gives Ava a shower.

I found this in Elsie and Shai’s room. It’s a Barbie doll given by my Aunt. She had never opened it for more than a decade, because she had never owned anything like it, and so she tried to preserve it.

I went to visit homes of other relatives, to see the housekeepers who helped raise my cousin. This is Elsie and her daughter Shai. I havent seen them for 12 years, but at 14, she knows me. Her mom tells her about all the girls in my family.

Millie, Nanay, and Ava rest in the afternoon. / Hannah Reyes Morales

A collage, created by Nanay and my grandmother at the grandpa and grandma club.

Nanay, after picking me up at the airport, going past a Desiderata jeep and a Philippine flag.

Millie and Ava, in Millie and Nanay’s room. / Hannah Reyes Morales

Nanay and her son Verone. She paid for his whole education using money she earned as a maid.

Millie’s son Bernie helps take care of Ava sometimes. He lives in our family’s home too. Before Bernie, two other sons of Millie have lived in our family home as well.

Millie and Ava / Hannah Reyes Morales

Millie soothes Ava. /Hannah Reyes Morales

'Alaga' is the term Filipina nannies use for the child they are taking care of. It also means 'care,' or 'caring.' There is an estimate of 600,000 to 2.5 million domestic workers in the Philippines. Overseas, domestic helpers are among the country's top remitters. Within the Philippines, the International Labor Organization reports that women comprise an estimate of 84% of domestic workers. In contrast, only 38% of the Philippines' labor force is made up of women. There is much discussion about domestic workers, the commonality of their abuse, and their rights. Often they are overworked and underpaid, with lines grey as to where their work days start and end.

I was raised by a domestic worker from the day I was born. I call her Nanay, which is the Filipino word for mother. She and Millie, our other helper, have turned my family's home into their own home, and they have become more than helpers, but also mothers to our family's children. They leave their homes in the province, traveling to work in worlds much different from their own. For Nanay, this hasn’t been a temporary assignment but a complete life change, moving to Manila to be a cook, and then to take care of a child that is not her own - me. They gave so much for so little in exchange, to care for the children and the elders in our clan, long term. This project to me is like a family history, but told through the eyes of our domestic workers, known in the Philippines as 'Kasambahay,' meaning 'those with us at home.'

Alaga documents the lives of the domestic workers who have lived with my family and have become part of it, exploring the ambiguities they must wade through, while navigating the complex relationships of 'family' and employment in parallel.

*This page is under construction, and will be updated with new work soon.